Is Romney in any sense impressive or a flip-flop flaky pathological liar? The candidate of a party that is now completely toxic.

I came across an article by Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein in the Washington Post titled: Lets Say It The Republicans Are the Problem.Mann & Ornstein are authors of the book Its Even Worse Than It Looks.

Posted by Daffy Duck, Wednesday, 7 November 2012 7:44:47 AM

Unfortunately, Americans think they're voting for the King of the World!

They can't see that one candidate is an Oligarch, one of the Ruling Class, and the other is a jumped up snake oil salesman who is entirely out of his depth.

The world needs to reduce the power of the U.S., bring it down to a size that better represents its 6% share of the world's population.

The ownership of the world's biggest stockpile of nuclear weapons should not entitle the U.S. to abuse its power.

We live in a democratic world, don't we?

Posted by David G, Wednesday, 7 November 2012 8:37:00 AM

"We live in a democratic world, don't we?"

Nope

Posted by Stezza, Wednesday, 7 November 2012 8:45:08 AM

But, Don, Obama is under the thumb of the unions, just like Labor in Australia. Obama will continue to pile regulation on top of regulation, regulating USA into poverty. Just like Labor is doing to us in Australia.

Compare the science policies of the two Presidential hopefuls [1]. There is no comparison. Obama all waffle, spin and BS. Romney's is clear, considered and has substance.

“Anyone who has ever run any organisation knows well the frustration of being at the top: you have relatively little idea of what is actually happening further down in the organisation.”

True. But it is up to the President to select the right people. Obama selected green and left activists for his science and energy advisers. That’s one of the reasons USA is in deep doo doo. And the economic management incompetence his team has displayed.

Furthermore, he’s a pacifist. That ideology should be reserved for idealists. It’s dumb for the President of the leader of the most influential country in the democratic (free) world.

You say: “I would probably vote for Obama, because I like the sound of him, even though I know that is a silly reason. As I have said before, he is Hollywood's idea of what a President should be - handsome, self-confident, articulate and graceful in his movements. “

The vast majority of people vote like that. But I am aghast that a professor of your standing votes like that. Why aren’t you advocating that people should carefully consider and weigh up the policies and the consequences of those policies for the future of the nation?

At federal election times in Australia I weigh up what I think are the most important priorities for Australia’s Federal Government and then I weigh the policies of the political parties to address these. In my opinion the most important things for the federal government to manage well are:

• Defence of the nation and its interests• Foreign affairs and trade• the economic performance of Australia (for both the long term and the short term)

Everything else follows as a result of these, especially the economic performance. The funding and quality of all the things we need follow: real wages growth, real standard of living improvement, Health, Education, infrastructure, quality of our cities, environmental management, etc. They all depend on the economic management.

Posted by Peter Lang, Wednesday, 7 November 2012 9:42:38 AM

Risible rubbish, and shovelled by the shipload? Peter Lang's comments, ditto? Apparently you actually can fool some of the people all of the time? Already we have credible evidence of quite massive vote rigging, with video of Romney supporters, allegedly posing as bipartisan election officials,caught on film/video, erasing pencilled in Obama votes, and replacing them with pencilled in Romney votes? If true, I wonder how much it might cost, to buy a corrupt official? [Mere pocket money perhaps for a, I can buy anything, billionaire!?] The way to stop this patently illegal behaviour, is to simply recount all the votes emerging from a particular problematic booth, in favour of, the quite deliberately disadvantaged candidate? In a genuine democracy, this sought of illegal behaviour should never ever be necessary!? Who says election results can't be bought? [Is it a chard or not a chard, or indeed, a hanging chard?] Thanks to providence and some rather innovative people, we now have mobile phones, the social media and, keep the bar stewards honest, eyes everywhere! I'm still predicting a narrow win for Obama, in spite of the alleged attempts by "gerrymandering" republican supporters, to fix it for Romney. Someone who wants power too badly, should never ever have it, or indeed, be so placed as able to bring the world to war, where it is his finger that hovers over a single button!? Rhrosty.